He said such an intervention would not only support the work of the police, but also help to reduce road accidents.

The police in collaboration with the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) have developed and deployed digital solution tools known as “TRAFFITECH-GH” to streamline the enforcement of road traffic laws and regulations to improve road safety in the country.

Dr Bawumia was speaking at the 52nd cadet officers graduating ceremony at the Police Training School at Tesano in Accra yesterday.

Event

In all, a total of 344 officers made up of 260 males and 84 females graduated.

The number is said to be the largest intake by the police service so far.

The graduates were taken through six months of training which included drills and classroom work in topics such as development of policing and security in Ghana, security and human rights, and intelligence gathering and analysis.

The Best All-Round Cadet Officer Award went to Frank Kwaku Fialor, who was presented with the Sword of Honour.

The Vice-President, who was the reviewing officer, inspected a parade by the graduating officers who included the mounted squadron (Horse riders) and the K9 Unit (Sniffer dogs) of the service.

In attendance were the Ministers for the Interior and Defence, Ambrose Dery and Dominic Nitiwul; the Inspector-General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare; the Chief of Defence Staff, Vice-Admiral Seth Amoama, and heads of other allied security services.

Dr Bawumia commended the police and other stakeholders for leveraging ongoing government digitalisation programmes to strengthen its reforms to address challenges of contemporary policing.

Leveraging digitalisation

“As the frontiers of crime constantly witness shifts, including surge in demand of related policing services, so must the strategies and transformation agenda evolve to meet the rapidly emerging pace, trends and complexities of crime service demands,” he said.

The Vice-President further stressed the need for every citizen to play a role towards building safer communities, adding “every well-meaning citizen must come on board so that together we can sustain the gains made in ensuring a safe, peaceful and a secure nation”.

“As we urge the public to come on board, I wish to charge officers on parade, in particular, and all other police officers to note that the expectation of the public is for you to be proactive and accountable to them.

“You should be exemplary law-abiding citizens for others to emulate.

As professionals, always remember to treat people the way you wish yourselves, spouses or children to be treated. 

Therefore, in enforcing the law, be fair, firm and fearless,” he said. 

Elections

Touching on the upcoming national elections in December next year, Dr Bawumia urged the police to let professionalism and experience guide them in the discharge of their duties.

He said work on additional infrastructure at the academy such as lecture rooms, ultra-modern auditorium and residential accommodation was nearing completion.

The Vice-President said that the project was intended to improve teaching and learning and also provide accommodation for the increasing number of officers admitted to the academy.

Also, he said, the government would continue to support the decentralisation drive by the Formed Police Unit (FPU) who had so far constructed over 122 bases across the country.